Pritam Singh Jauhal, a Second World War veteran who later fought for the right of Sikh men to wear a turban in the Royal Canadian Legion’s halls, has died at 95 in Surrey, B.C.
His daughter, Varinder Bains, confirmed the news.
he was denied entrance to the Newton Legion in Surrey because of his turban and legion rules forbidding the wearing of hats and headgear.
Jauhal fought for the British Empire in World War II, but on Remembrance Day in 1993, he, along with four other Sikh veterans, were stopped at the gate and refused entry to the Newton Legion (as per the Legion’s rules, you are not allowed to wear a headdress as it is considered an insult), despite receiving clearance a few days earlier on dress code from the legion.
Harjit Singh Sajjan shares light on this incident and says, “Lt. Col. Pritam Singh could have just gone home and tried to forget the insult, but instead he readied him- self for another battle; a battle that he fought with his wits by attacking the ignorance with education. He achieved his mission and in doing so, created greater awareness in Canada about the turban and what it represents.”
Sajjan goes on to say, “I read an article in a newspaper while I was visiting Toronto during the height of Lt. Col. Pritam Singh’s fight. The article was a letter to the editor from another World War II veteran with a Caucasian name.
The synopsis of his letter was that any soldier who served on the front line would have seen a Sikh with a turban in the thick of the battle. This statement spoke volumes…combat breaks racial barriers because a soldier in war does not look at the ethnicity or faith of another soldier. They only care about one thing: ‘Will you be there for me when the bullets start flying?’ Lt. Col. Pritam Singh was there in combat proudly wearing his turban serving alongside Allied soldiers fighting the Nazi’s.”
The incident received local, national and international media coverage, and Jauhal conducted numerous interviews.
The controversy came at a time when the right of devout Sikhs to wear their turbans and daggers was heatedly debated in Canada. Just three years earlier, the RCMP had first allowed a Sikh officer to wear a turban rather than the traditional stetson.
An emergency meeting was held by the Royal Canadian Legion, and Jauhal received a letter stating the organization had reviewed its “National Policy governing the wearing of religious headdress. You can now enter in any of 1,720 Legions across Canada with a turban on your head.”
He had the opportunity to meet the Queen in 1994, and she had an in-depth conversation with him about the incident and was glad the matter was resolved. Jauhal thanked the Queen for her “kind intervention,” which “proved to be a turning point in ending the injustice and discrimination against the Sikhs wearing turbans [in Canadian legions].”
Through perseverance, Jauhal continued to fight for his rights as a Sikh and war veteran when faced with adversity here in Canada, and his story is one of hope, optimism and determination. He was a hard working soldier, who rose up the ranks to Lieutenant-Colonel and retired after 39 years of service with 13 medals in tow. He fought in World War II under the Eight British Army, in addition to the 1947-49 Pakistan War, the 1961- 62 China War and the Vietnam War in 1961.
In November 2013, Jauhal’s biography “A Soldier Remembers” was unveiled to a gathered crowd of politicians, family, friends and admirers. Sandhra, who is a coordinator at CICS, co-authored the book and conducted numerous interviews with Jauhal over an 18-month period and says her Director Satwinder K. Bains decided that CICS should chronicle Jauhal’s amazing life in a biography.
Jauhal was the eldest of the four children of Ram Singh and Hukam Dev Kaur, farmers in the Jalandhar district of Punjab.
